Handheld wireless communication devices may have previously provided with one or more actuators mounted on the housing. Each actuator is selectively movable, by hand, between first and second positions. The actuators may be used for a variety of functions. For example, actuators may be used to switch between alert profiles, such as, normal and silent. Other actuators may have been used to switch between wireless on and off modes. Still other actuators may have been used to control software application settings. Of course, hand-movable actuators have also been put to other uses. Such actuators are very easy for a user to understand and can be readily checked for status or position by looking at, or feeling, the switch—i.e., instead of requiring the user to perform a detailed examination of the User Interface (UI) on the device. Users can also manually adjust such actuators without even looking at the mobile communications device.
Prior art mobile communications device actuators, however, have required manual operation by hand, without allowing for operation by software or, for that matter, by the user's operation of the UI. Such limitations may have prevented the implementation of more elegant functionality and synergies with, for example, time-outs for automatic keylock/password lock, complex profile settings, or software applications which might otherwise be designed to “decide” whether to turn on wireless functionality when accessed.
What is needed is a mobile communications device actuator enabling operation, by hand, of mobile device features (e.g., power, keylock/password lock, profile settings, wireless on and off, short-range communications on and off) which electrically knows it position, and which also may be automatically moved from one position to another by the device. What may be needed is an actuator having a best-of-both-worlds functionality, which neither a hardware solution nor a UI software solution may have been previously able to provide.